Public Science & Reference

An Innovative and Fun Way of Teaching Math

Frank Ho

Teacher and founder of Ho Math and Chess

www.mathandchess.com

I have observed that one of the main reasons that children hate math is they have not mastered the foundation of math, surprisingly the root of problems can be traced to the basics they learned in the elementary grades such as addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. When elementary students are asked why do we have math? Lots of these children can relate math to our daily life such as shopping, cooking, measuring, driving, time, shapes etc. and most of the time they think math is important because it has something to do with counting and numbers.

It is very good these youngsters realize that math has relations to our daily life but does the traditional way of doing of math worksheets such as 2 + 3 reflect the environment today our youth lives? It certainly does not. Math is not just about counting numbers. Apart from teaching the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, math is supposed to teach our next generation on how to solve problems and be creative. Part of the problems why some children hate math worksheets is simply because these traditional worksheets do not represent the world they are living now.

HOW TO TACKLE THE PROBLEM OF MATHEMATICS IN SCHOOLS

Mathematics in general is construed as a subject which is very difficult and thus students fear this subject resulting in low scores. However the fact is otherwise. In order to tackle this problem, the teaching of mathematics has to change. It should be child centred.

Firstly, the child should be made to master tables up to 19. For this quizzes may be designed by the teachers by dividing the students into two groups and asking tables randomly. A game may also be designed on this and may be played on knockout basis.

Next the child should be made to have command over addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and the BODMAS rule.

It is found that the child gets confused as to whether his/her addition, subtraction etc is correct or not? For this the method of 9’s for checking addition, subtraction and multiplication should be introduced to the students (Details are available in the accompanying CD).

The teacher should divide the students into bright, average and under-achievers. The teacher should make the seating arrangement in his class in such a way that the under-achievers should be made to occupy the first two rows in the class. Each bright child should be made to sit beside each under-achiever and the average students and the remaining bright students should be made to occupy the subsequent rows. In this way the teacher will have an eye to eye contact with his/her under-achievers. Further, the under-achievers will receive a dual guidance while a class is on- one, directly from the teacher and two, from his neighbour who is a bright student. This will certainly help him to learn the topic/subject more effectively.

TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS

Every teacher of mathematics needs to be informed and convinced about the educational values of his subject. His own conviction enables him to convince the students, parents and the society. These are as under:-

a)     Practical value—He cannot do without learning how to count and calculate. Any person ignorant of it is easily cheated counting, notation, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, weighing, measuring, selling, loving are fundamental processors of mathematics having immense practical value. It has become the basis of world’s entire business and commercial system.

b)    Disciplinary value—It trains and disciplines the mind. It is exact time and point knowledge and therefore creates discipline in the mind. It develops reasoning and thinking powers more and demands less from memory. Reasoning in mathematics possesses certain characteristics which are suitable for the training of learner’s mind. These are:-

1)      Characteristic of simplicity—it teaches that definite facts are always expressed in simple language which are always easily understand.

2)    Characteristic of Accuracy—Accurate reasoning thinking and judgment are essential for its study. Accuracy, exactness and precision compose the beauty of mathematics

3)    Characteristic of certainty of results— The answer is either right or wrong. Subjectivity or difference of opinion between the teacher and the taught is missing. The student can verify his result by reverse process. It is possible for the child to remove his difficulty by self-effort and to be sure of the removal. He develops faith in self-effort which is the secret of success in life.

4)    Characteristic of originality— Most work in mathematics demands original thinking, reproduction and cramming of ideas of others is not very much appreciated. When the child has a new or a different mathematical problem, it is only his originality which keeps him going. The discovery or establishment (derivation) of a formula or conversion of formula in one form to another is also his original work. This practice in originality enables the child to face new and challenging problems with confidence.

Untitled Document

The Beauty of Vedic Mathematics

Why Vedas?

How many times have we come across a situation in our daily lives where we are

not able to make a calculation quickly, on our own? A lot of times, I guess.

What we do require in these situations is the ability to calculate in our heads,

with the help of shortcuts! In fact, we don’t have to rack our brains and invent them.

These methods are already available in Ancient Hindu Texts called The Vedas.

What is Vedic Mathematics?

Vedic Mathematics is the name given to the ancient system of Mathematics which was

rediscovered from the Vedas between 1911 and 1918 by Sri Bharati Krisna Tirthaji (1884-1960).

According to his research all of mathematics is based on sixteen Sutras or word-formulae.

Example of Vedic Mathematics

How do we square a number ending in 5, quickly?

The first sutra given is “Ek?dhikena P?rvena” translated as “By one more than the previous one”.

Let us apply this on 752.

752 = 75 X 75

The answer is in two parts 56 and 25.

The last part is got by 52 = 5X 5 = 25.

The first part is got by the first number, multiplied by the “one more” than the first number, i.e in this case 7

(7+1) = 7X 8 = 56.

So combining both the parts we get, 752 = 5625. SIMPLE!!!!

Similarly, 452 = 2025,

Waxing eloquently on the basic importance of Mathematics in human life, Roger Bacon (1214-1294), an English Franciscan friar, philosopher, scientist and scholar of the 13th century, once stated: “Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since he who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences or the things of the world.” And the ingenuity of his statement is there before us to see, in this Internet era.

However, mathematics, in itself, has all the ingredients that make it a universal language shared by all human beings irrespective of culture, religion, or gender. Pi is always 3.14159 regardless of where we are. Similarly, the elemental mathematical processes (like addition, subtraction, etc.) never get changed due to a change in the location or for any other reason whatsoever. These all say about the close intertwining of mathematics in our daily life.

At a time when even a common man is being increasingly dependent upon the application of science and technology in the day-to-day activities of life, the role of mathematics has undoubtedly been redefined. Right from getting up in early hours of the day to the ringing of an alarm, to wait for the counts of whistles of the cooker, to exchange currency at a ticket outlet while availing a public conveyance, almost every next moment we do the simple calculations at the back of our mind. Of course, these are all done pretty unconsciously without a thought being spared for the use of mathematics on all such occasions.